WHITE OR WHITE
It was another nice day that and I did not have anything to do. The weather was nice and the itch to get out needed to be taken care of. The harvest was done around a pond that I have not been to this year. It was too wet to drive through the low spots near the pond, but it is not much of a hike from another spot. I grabbed two graphite rods and headed for the pond. I find these easier to roll cast than with a bamboo rod. Part of this may be my casting inability. I had two boxes of flies with me. Some of them were flies that I have not used for a while. They had worked before so this was a good time to try them again.
I wore my rubber boots so that I could get a few feet off shore. This makes it easier to roll cast. There are a few places to get into the pond but the other places have trees and bushes that make it hard to get through. This also makes it hard to try to cast from shore. However, I know the water is shallow out a couple of feet all around the shore, so it's possible to fish around the pond and get back to the path to get out.
I had a white boa yarn fly and a black furl tailed leech on my leaders, and I could roll cast to get the fly just off the shore and bring it back. After the fly hit the water it had not moved very far and a nice bluegill headed for China. The rod tip does a lot of dancing before the fish comes to hand. Another little longer cast results in another nice bluegill coming to hand. When the next casts were made farther off shore there was a mix of bluegills and crappie. I moved a little on the pond, toward the shallow end. The fishing was much slower here. I got a few nice bluegills, but it was much slower than it had been before.
Curiosity drove me to move about 15 feet from where I started and that resulted in more strikes. I cast about 8 to 10 feet and got a fish. Then I cast a few feet farther out and got another one. I repeated this a few more feet farther out and got another fish. Then I made the casts a few feet longer and repeated the sequence. I was getting a mix of about 5 bluegills to each crappie and about ever fifth fish was a bass. This worked as I moved around the pond until I was across from the path where I came in. The water is getting shallow again and the fish were very scattered. All were coming on the white fly so I left the other rod where I could see it. I made some casts as I headed back to the path and I picked up a few more fish as I did this. I did not fish as thoroughly going back as was done coming around the first time.
The fishing bag was getting full. Although more fish might go in, but it was is still a hike to get to the truck. It was probably just over 100 yards, but I still needed to carry the basket out. Plus the fish need to be taken care of.
I headed home and take care of a lot of fish, and I had lots of fillets to share. It was a fun place to be, and I have become a better roll caster.
Hope you can get out on the water.
Rick